Citizens of Limerick: Patrick O’Brien

“I live in County Limerick, I have done all my life; I still do. I am a tutor for Music Generation in Limerick City and I am in a band called Windings,” says the ever-affable Patrick O’Brien from Pallaskenry.

“Curraghchase is my favourite thing about Limerick because I live 5 minutes from it. I can go for a walk whenever I want, it’s in the middle of the countryside and I can get coffee there.” However, working in the city has its perks for too. “My favourite thing about the city is the new promenade. I love Canteen because I’m always there. I love the new creative centre that I’m working in.”

Patrick’s work with Music Generation and Windings puts him at the heart of Limerick’s cultural scene and he is keen to share that with others both in Ireland and abroad. “Since I started working with Music Gen I’m in the city nearly every day and we get to see loads of stuff. I brought people up from West Cork and Mayo and made them come to Limerick to show them how amazing Limerick is. With Windings it’s been cool as well because we are a Limerick band and we get to tour Ireland and the UK and bang on about Limerick and how much we love it.”

Speaking about the Limerick2020 bid, Patrick is all for it, “I think the bid is great, anything to bring in the arts, be it from external sources or what we have here. I think it’s great because it is making stuff happen. I would love to see more of the music that I do taking place. All these people actively making music and working together to make music and show young people that this is a very real way of making a living, and they think ‘yeah, this is cool!’”

“I think if we get the bid it can do nothing but good."

"If you look at everything that has happened since 2014. For example, we are here at 20 past 11 on a Friday morning talking about the arts and that wouldn’t have happened before. There’s a lot more fluidity between groups now, whereas there was all these different camps before and that’s not a bad thing, people just did what they did. The bid has made people work together and it can only do more now it is a much bigger thing. Anything that gets people working together more is fantastic in my opinion. I think it opened people’s eyes about what’s in Limerick.”

Comparing Limerick to other European cities he has visited Patrick says, “It’s like a small Berlin, but I want it to be more, I want it to be a big Berlin!”